Turning 40 and 10,000 kettlebell swings

 This is dedicated to the memories of my Mom and Dad!

I finally decided to keep a blog to track workouts, meals, post videos, post fitness rants (oh do I rant) and give advice. I thought today would be the day to start for a few reasons.

1. Today is my 40th birthday, and no 40 is not the new 30. 40 is 40.
2. I just completed the 10,000 swing challenge. 

Yes 40, here is a pic of a young Pharaoh and my mom on my 25th birthday. This was long before I thought about being a trainer, long before the gym and certainly long before kettlebells. Next month I head to San Diego for the RKC, the most recognized kettlebell certification there is. Most of you know since late January I have been training for this. In preparing for the 3 day certification I decided to do the 10,000 swing challenge. What is it? Take a kettlebell, or 2 and swing it 10,000 times in a month. You have to use a weight that's challenging for it to make a difference. I used bells from 16kg-32kg (36lbs-70lbs). I started on July 1st and finished today about 12:30pm. 1 hand swings, 2 hands swings, snatch transfers etc. A few days I thought my hamstrings and forearms would explode. A lot of foam rolling, stretching with bands and advil got me to my goal.

What next? I'll take the weekend off and Monday push towards 11,000 possibly 12,000. I'm sure during the RKC I'll have to do 1000 swings each day, so I have to be ready for that. Monday I'll also do a practice run on the snatch test. 100 snatches in less than 5 minutes with a 24kg bell (53lbs) Is it hard? Think about running from a pitbull while pushing a truck uphill. Ok, not that hard, but it is taxing. We've done them a few times in my small group classes and everyone is always smoked when it's over.

Here is a vid of my birthday workout, snatch transfers. The workout comes from Tracy Reifkand who has a blog and posts tons of great posts about food, workouts and life. I plan on updating this blog on a regular basis. I have a food journal that I did a few weeks back, just haven't edited it yet.

Pharaoh out!